Dec 1, 2014

‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ Banner Teases Returning Characters

won’t
be an exception, just going by a newly-released giant tapestry for the film.
It’s fitting enough, however, as this fantasy blockbuster is (probably) the last of
Jackson’s movies set in Middle-earth; the

final
chapter (and Jackson’s
favorite installment) in the filmmaker’s Hobbit trilogy; and the
segment of Jackson’s ongoing adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literature that will bridge the events
of young(er) Bilbo Baggins’ grand adventure with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

To
recap where we left off in The Desolation
of Smaug (spoilers?): Smaug
the dragon (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been driven out of the Lonely Mountain by
Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and his dwarf company, only to takeoff seeking his
vengeance against the inhabitants of Lake-town. Meanwhile, Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) has
been captured shortly after he
discovered that The Necromancer (also Cumberbatch) was actually a not-fully-regenerated Sauron,
who proceeded to set his army

of
Orcs on a march to conquer Erebor. Oh, and Kili the dwarf (Aidan Turner) was
left wondering if the medical miracle-working elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) would ever consider
dating him, after all this war

business
was settled.

The
aforementioned Battle of the Five Armies
tapestry (via Digital Spy) features all of the
aforementioned characters, along with many other key players who were placed on the board over the
course of either the

first
Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, or The
Desolation of Smaug. We’ve also broken the banner down into the individual
poster components, which you can peruse through below.

CLICK FOR LARGER VERSION

There
are certainly a significant number of important narrative threads and character
subplots that need to be tied off in The
Battle of the Five Armies (seriously, will
Tauriel admit she loves Kili?!).

Not
to mention, certain returning characters such as Saruman (Christopher Lee) – assuming they
weren’t just thrown into the banner for the heck of it – should help to bring the Hobbit movie trilogy full-circle,
while also foreshadowing what lies ahead (for said characters and Middle-earth
in general) in the Rings films.

In
other words: if you haven’t given up yet on Jackson’s massive and sprawling
expedition through Middle-earth – despite the filmmaker’s still
controversial decision to turn The Hobbit
source novel into a trilogy – then reaching the final destination along
may be reward enough. Judging by the Battle of the Five Armies trailer,
the movie is also shaping up to be a pretty good fantasy epic on its own terms.